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Sumit SinghalSumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.

Knowledge Centre, St. Olavs Hospital in Trondheim, Norway

The Knowledge Centre at St. Olav’s Hospital in Trondheim completes the overall scheme for the hospital grounds that has been on-going since the design competition in 1995, and is centrally located in the heart of the development. Designed with a strong emphasis on functionality and usability, the Knowledge Centre will provide facilities for both St. Olav’s Hospital and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The building services include outpatient treatment rooms, laboratories, offices, isolated bedposts, ward, library, study rooms, auditoriums, canteen and restaurant. The main building structure is wrapped around the primary place of sharing knowledge; the egg-shaped auditorium.

The facades are held together by a ‘skeleton’ with a dynamic structure that allows for flexible placement of windows fit to cater for the diverse functions inside the centre. Incorporated in the frontage is a unique and completely integrated artwork, refining the elements already present in the passive facade.

As the first hospital building in Northern Europe, The Knowledge Centre is built to passive house standards. On average energy consumption will be reduced by 75% compared to existing health buildings. The Knowledge Centre is a pioneering project with respect to developing processes and interaction between those involved, through active use of a BIM model from sketch level to construction.

The project has been organized using the latest LEAN principles (maximizing customer value while minimizing waste), which increases efficiency significantly with considerable cost benefit for the client.